


Secret Santa Day

by merciki



Category: Hunger Games Series - All Media Types, Hunger Games Trilogy - Suzanne Collins, The Hunger Games (Movies)
Genre: AU, F/M, Modern Day Setting, Office Party, Secret Santa
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-11
Updated: 2019-12-11
Packaged: 2021-03-07 18:55:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,279
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21754984
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/merciki/pseuds/merciki
Summary: Oh oh oh!Katniss Everdeen hates everything Christmas. From tinsels to sweaters, from carols to Mariah Carey.This year, though, there's a secret Santa planned at work. Let the fun begin !
Relationships: Katniss Everdeen/Peeta Mellark
Comments: 29
Kudos: 74
Collections: The Hunger Games 2019 Season of Hope Holiday Gift Exchange





	Secret Santa Day

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Norberts_Mom](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Norberts_Mom/gifts).

> norbertsmom's prompt was :  
Katniss and Peeta work together. Their employer is having a Secret Santa, everyone has to participate. For the week up to Christmas, the Secret Santa gifts small token gifts, and at the Christmas party they give the main gift and reveal who they are. Instead of getting each other. One of them gets jealous of the thoughtful gifts given to the other by their Secret Santa. How close they are before this exchange is up to you.
> 
> My huge thanks to xerxia for her careful betaing of this little story.  
Thank you to sohypothetically and shesasurvivor for organizing this Gift Exchange.
> 
> If you enjoyed, you know what to do :) Comments and reviews are always welcome !
> 
> oh, and Joyeux Noël !

I hate Christmas.  
I fucking hate it. And all that comes with it.  
EVERYTHING.  
From garlands to songs, from sweaters to Mariah Carey.

Everything.

Included this damned Secret Santa thing Effie Trinket came up with.   
At.Work. Now I have to buy 12 gifts, for someone I don’t know that much and sneak them in every damn day. Twelve GIfts. Twelve for the Twelve days of Christmas - if anyone oh-oh-ohs, I swear to put an arrow through his eye.

And guess who I picked as Secret Santa? Yeah, right, none other than our boss, Grumpy Abernathy. The thing is, it would be easy to please the old man. Tiny bottles of alcohol would do. I’d just have to hop down to whatever store, and buy them, then drop them directly on his desk in one go. But somebody would guess that it’s me. After all, my hatred of Christmas is well know. 

My desk is never decorated for Christmas. Not like Mellark’s. Peeta is too joyful at this time of the year, bringing in a new item every day for his own place. His desk has started to look like Santa’s village. I do my best to avoid being around him during this period.

The thing is, though, we are working on a project together at the moment, converting a former industrial zone into a large park. He uses some of the buildings to make stands for little shops, I take care of all the vegetation.

This means I have to go to his desk quite often, where I’m always met with a Christmas song or worse, a Christmas song sung by Peeta. 

Let me be clear: Peeta has a lot of fine qualities. Singing is not one of them.

Anyways, back to the main subject. Fucking Secret Santa, fucking Abernathy, and fucking rule that says no alcohol in the office.

Fuckity fuck.

I sigh deeply as I cross the street, trying to hide the Starbucks bag I’m carrying the best I can. I have to put that on Haymitch’s desk before he arrives (that shouldn’t be hard), but without anyone noticing me (that’s the harder part, as I am pretty sure Delly is watching everyone like a hawk, trying to figure out who has whom as a Secret Santa.)

I am lucky this morning, as the only person in the office is Peeta, who’s on the phone with I have no clue who, which lets me sneak towards our boss’s office so I can drop his present on his desk. I am amazed to find something on mine, a lovely little package that sits on my computer’s keyboard.

Which means my secret Santa can only be Peeta.

I hear him hang the up the phone, deciding on the spot to confront him. The sooner this charade is over, the better.

I casually sit on his desk, playing with the little packet in my hands. 

“So, what did you get me ?”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about, Katniss,” he answers. Well, he doesn’t know he is speaking to the female version of Sherlock Holmes. There was nothing on my desk when I left yesterday, and he’s the only one here this morning. Ergo, he dropped it on my desk this morning.

I raise my eyebrows at his answer, hoping the disbelief is readable on my face.

“I swear, I’m not your Secret Santa. I got Madge.” He says with a little smirk, as he opens his drawer, taking a small package out of it. “Which reminds me, I have to hide it somewhere on her desk.”

Without another word, he stands up, goes to Madge’s desk and looks around for a place to hide the little package he has. He finally settles on putting it inside her pencil pot, before turning to me with a smile.

“Et voila!” He makes his way back to his desk, passing in front of me.

“So, Katniss, who did you get?”

“Grumpy.”

Peeta’s laugh fills the large open space.

“Good luck with that! You’re aware you can’t smuggle alcohol inside the building?”

I look up to the ceiling. Don’t I know it.

“I’m glad it’s only a couple of days and then we’re done with Christmas,” I say. I’m already over this Santa thing, as I have no clue what to get Haymitch for the party.

“You still haven’t opened your package. Maybe you’ll like it?”

He’s right, I haven’t opened the package yet. I sigh as I undo the ribbon surrounding it, opening the paper.

“Smooth. Tea bags. Yay.” I’m a very well known coffee drinker. Anyone who has paid attention to me will have noticed that I never drink tea. Good old cup of joe for me, nothing less. And a few mugs of it before 10:00am if I want to survive the day.

On an impulse, I hand Peeta the tea bags. 

“Here. You drink tea. I don’t.” I can see the surprise on his face.

“You know I drink tea?”

“Yeah. And that you never take sugar in it. And that you always double-knot your shoelaces.”

He smirks.

“Well, seems I don’t have any secrets left for you, Everdeen,” he says before winking.

The bastard.

\---  
Over the next few days, I manage to bring a donut a day for Haymitch and to sneak it into his office before he arrives.

Yet, I can’t figure out who’s dropping packages on my desk.

It’s no secret I don’t like Christmas, but this stranger does nothing to help me go over it.

After tea bags, I got a small pedi/mani kit. As if I look like a girl who would spend time doing her nails.

Or someone who’d like perfume samples. 

Or a bunch of hair ribbons.

Perfect gifts for someone like my little sister Prim.  
Not for me.

It becomes a ritual every morning to open my package in front of Peeta. To laugh about it. I lose count of the times he asks who could be my Secret Santa, because obviously it’s someone who had no clue who I am.

“Oh, but wait until you get the big present at tonight’s party! You’d better practise your poker face for when your gifter is revealed!”

“What do you mean?” I ask him, unsure what he well, means.

“Come on, Katniss. Someone will come at you with a big present, saying ‘I’m your Secret Santa’ and you’ll have to pretend you liked all your gifts, or else you’ll make someone very miserable the day before Christmas. And even if your dislike of the celebration is well known, maybe you don’t want to ruin someone else’s.”

I flinch at Peeta’s words. I know he didn’t mean them in a cruel way, yet, they sting.

He’s right, though. I need to get ready to face whoever will be coming with a Christmas gift for me, because based on what I saw, I’m going to hate it. A lot.

“What did you buy Haymitch?” he asks.

“Got him a gift certificate at the vineyard down the road for an afternoon of tasting.”

“That’s nice of you. If you’re not careful, he’ll start thinking you actually like him.”

“He’s not that bad for a boss…” I look around, making sure nobody has arrived yet before asking. “What did you get for Madge?”

To my surprise, Peeta blushes before he rakes his hand through his hair, as if he were nervous.

“Come on, Peeta, tell me! I swear I won’t laugh or make comments that you bought lingerie for your girlfriend!”

My words seem to surprise him.

“My girlfriend? Lingerie? What are you talking about, Katniss?”

“Well, Madge is your girlfriend, right? I’ve seen the two of you leaving together often enough…”

“Madge is certainly not my girlfriend. True, she’s dating a Mellark, but that would be my brother. Not me.”

Wow.  
Talk about a mistake.

“I’m single,” he adds.

This time, I can feel myself blushing under the gaze of his blue eyes. They seem to send me a message, but I’m not fluent in Mellark.

Sadly.

“Hello everybody!!! Who’s excited for tonight?” Delly’s voice carries over from the elevator as she makes her entrance into the open space where we work. Everybody knows she picked Thom as a Secret Santa but we all pretend to not notice when she walks around his desk five times in a row, moving one thing at a time, before dropping a small package next to his keyboard.

She makes her way towards us immediately after. I can see her eyes sparkling as she reaches us before starting to talk a mile a minute.

“I can’t believe it’s tonight! I’m so excited to know who’s been giving me these great presents! Do you have any idea who’s yours, Katniss? Aren’t you excited?”

I want to tell her that I couldn’t care less, when I catch Peeta’s eye and his words come back to me. I never thought my dislike of everything Christmas-y could cause someone else to feel miserable. 

I do my best to smile at Delly when I answer.

“Sure, I’m really impatient”, again doing my best to not sound ironic. Delly doesn’t deserve my snapping at her.

I don’t tell her I’m impatient for it all to be over, to start a new year, with new goals, new things to achieve. My words seem to have an impact on her, as I see her smile broadly.

“I am too!!! I can’t wait for my recipient to receive their final gift!”

“I’m sure he or she will love it!” I add. See, how I’ve improved already?

I can see Peeta nodding slightly from the corner of my eye. I wonder if he’s agreeing with Delly or if he’s noticed my effort to not be so grinchy and approves. Anyways, I’d better be off to my desk to find a way to make this park Peeta designed as beautiful as I wish it to be.

There’s an email waiting for me on my computer.  
From Peeta. I frown, wondering what new invention he had put into this new residence we have to build together.

I look over my shoulder to where he sits at his desk.  
He winks at me.

I shake my head before I open his message.

It seems #TeamChristmas is winning over #TeamGrinch if even Katniss Everdeen can say a few nice words regarding the Secret Santa!

Peeta  
Co-Manager of #TeamChristmas.

I swear, if I wasn’t so smitten by his blue eyes and his buns, I’d hate him.

When I say buns, I mean cheese buns. Don’t get me wrong.  
There’s nothing sexual between me and Peeta.

\--  
Men shouldn’t be allowed to wear suits at company parties. Or, more precisely, Peeta shouldn’t be allowed to wear a suit to the company’s Secret Santa Party.   
Or if I want to be very precise, he shouldn’t be allowed to wear a suit that makes his eyes even bluer than they already are.

Not that I notice that, right ?  
Right.

It seems I am cursed though, because every time I turn around he’s somewhere in my line of vision. Giving Madge her present. Toasting with Gale. Hiding Haymitch’s flask.

He’s everywhere.

Even when Finnick gives me my present (a spa day? who does he think I am ?? I don’t do spa days, I’m not Annie!) Peeta’s next to me, laughing. 

He even whispers in my ear to have fun at the spa.  
He knows I don’t do spas.

The bastard.

He leaves my side before I have time to move away myself or to scold him.

He knows me well.

I gave Haymitch his gift twenty minutes ago. That’s my cue to leave, right? I don’t want to end up alone in a corner. I showed my Secret Santa who I was, I received my gift. I can go home, Netflix is waiting for me.

I leave the conference room where the party is being held, grab my coat from my seat. When I search for my keys in my pocket, I find a folded paper that I’m sure wasn’t there when I arrived.

I take it out, unfold it. It’s handwritten.

Katniss,

When Effie came up with this idea of having a secret santa, I hoped I would pick you as the receiver of my gifts. Turned out I didn’t get the raven-haired beauty I wanted, but the blonde woman everyone else wished they had.

Everybody except Finnick. He only has eyes for Annie. He so much wanted to have her as a secret santa. I think that’s why he gave you things she would have loved, instead of things you would have liked.

Anyways.  
I wanted to pick you. I knew exactly what I would give you. Kenyan coffee. A year of cheese buns from my dad’s bakery. A papyrus plant. Honey from the organic farm down in Hampsted.

I would have taken you out for the big gift. To that place you like so much, Sae’s, so you could eat your weight in lamb stew, and a bit more if you could.

Maybe then I would have dared to ask you out.

I realize it’s just words on paper, Katniss Everdeen. But I’m willing to say them out loud to you if you’ll allow it.

If you don’t, I’ll never mention this letter again.

Choice is yours.

Maybe you can make someone besides Haymitch happy … it’s nearly Christmas ...

Peeta.  
#TeamKatniss

\----  
I couldn’t care less about Effie and her Secret Santa thing. About the voucher I gave Haymitch earlier. Or about the gift from Finnick.

All I can think about are Peeta’s lips as he dives back to kiss me again.

Best Christmas ever.


End file.
